Theatlasrealm - Atlas

sibling shenanigans

[id: it is a comic of Nya, Kai and Lloyd from Ninjago. In the first image, Nya is walking towards a couch, looking exhausted. She then throws herself onto the couch, landing face first. As she lays there, Kai peeks in from the side before throwing himself over the couch and on top of Nya, falling on his back. Lloyd then peeks in from the other side, smiling, as Kai looks up at him from where he is laying on top of Nya. Lloyd then throws himself, grinning, belly first and with his arms extended over both Kai and Nya, Kai scoots backwards and looks at Lloyd with wide eyes while Nya’s face, also wide-eyed, is peeking out from between Kai’s feet. The last image is of Lloyd, mumbling a “sorry”, laying on top of Nya with his arms resting curled on her back, Nya is once again face down and she is clenching her fist in pain while Kai is laying on her legs, leaning back on the armrest with one arm on the back rest of the couch, amused./ end id ]

Your hc about kai being spared from prank wars bc of big brother privileges is so right I love you. I can imagine a massive prank war going on and kai having no idea its happening because lloyd specifically intercepts any pranks that would affect kai

anon… I love you MORE!!

imagine Kai just waking up on the morning wearing cat slippers and walking outside and he sees all the ninja on the floor and he looks at Lloyd and Lloyd shrugs and says, “prank war.”

half the time kai doesn’t even know a prank war is going on because

1) the master of pranks (Lloyd) does not touch him

2) anyone who lays a prank on Kai is to be demolished by the master of pranks

Yeah this makes me feel existential dread, drop it

🌊🔥

ive said this so many times but one of my favorite parts about kai is despite his  trauma, when he gives, it doesnt come with strings. hes not expecting anything from anyone- when he gives, he does so without ulterior motives. i think its so important to realize that kai understands the value of love and decides to share his love, share what he holds in his heart (that fact that he chooses to hold love in his heart despite everything is beautiful itself), with the world, despite the world not returning it to him.

he loved his parents yet again so effortlessly, and he has always loved his family, nya, lloyd, jay, cole, zane, pixal, wu profusely.

Lloyd has oni horns. Nya has those tendril thingies from her sea dragon form. Kai has his stupid hair. This means all three RGB siblings have some kind of unusual head growth. Theyre matching. Peace and love on planet earth

ninjago’s biggest flaw: death = development

ninjago has this consistent idea that the death of a character leads to the development of either said character, or the characters who grieve the death. while this concept can be written very well, ninjago can’t seem to get it right.

for example, nya’s sacrifice in seabound. i think her death could have been the BEST example in ninjago of how relationships can grow and strengthen over a shared loss. nyas ‘death’ could’ve been written as a wonderful way to deepen relationships between the characters, ESPECIALLY kai and jay. relationship development between those two would have been such a good concept, stabilizing eachother during times of grief, and so cole (who was, im sure we all agree, the most stable post seabound) would not have the burden of trying to help all members of the team, burying his own grief in order to aid the others, just as he had to do when his mother died.

furthermore, nya’s own death could have been a development strike for herself, but the show did not give her and nyad enough time  to show nya once again reestablishing her sense of self, and collecting her memories. this lack of time nya had, and the lack of attention brought to kai’s grieving methods, combined with loss of potential growth between kai and jay, simply proved that what the writers were aiming for (nyas death--> development) did not work out. and im sure u all can think of the other examples where this idea does not work out.

but i think while the death= development IS a problem, there are times where they got it right, and it did lead to development at some point. for example, when the monastery doors collapsed on lloyd, and so he ‘died’ and met with the first spinjitsu master (plot contribution). and, cole’s ‘fall/death’ showed us an extremely rare occasion of kai being vulnerable and scared, and then nya into a phase of blaming herself, which led to kai comforting nya, showing the strength of the bond between the two.

so, ultimately, i believe the true problem, is : ninjago’s inability to correctly and deeply portray grief,  because the entire idea of death= development  is based on how individuals deal with grief (coping mechanisms), how they carry on with it, and the relationships formed/strengthened by it. if grief is written poorly, then death can never lead to development.